


What You Have Become

by Miqdad_Suleman



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Angst, Crossposted to FFN, Does this count as graphic?, F/M, Heavy Angst, Murder, Non-Graphic Violence, Oneshot, Other, Suicide, modern hyrule
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:13:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24438748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miqdad_Suleman/pseuds/Miqdad_Suleman
Summary: His eyes never left her cold, unseeing ones as he raised the knife to his own throat. His whispered apologies continued as he drew blood and even continued as his blood filled his throat.Who am I? What have I become?
Relationships: Link/Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	What You Have Become

_**What You Have Become— Monsters Hide Among Us** _

_"You’re late, Link. Well, never mind. Pair up with Zelda there and get to work. Zelda dear, explain the activity to Link, will you?”_

_"Yes, Ms_ _Sachs.”_

_He put his bag down on the desk and smiled shyly at the girl sitting across from him. “Hi.” He said. “My name is Link Forester.”_

_“I know.” She said brightly. “Ms_ _Sachs said so. I’m Zelda. Zelda Harkinian.”_

There was so much blood.

_“Hey, Link.”_

_“Zelda! I haven’t seen you in ages!”_

_“Yeah, we should catch up sometime. But, well, I wanted to ask you something.”_

_“Go on.”_

_“Well, you know how the school’s hosting that dance in a couple of weeks.”_

_“Yeah. Are you planning to go?”_

_“Yeah, I… I wanted to ask…”_

_“Go on.”_

_“Will you go to the dance with me?”_

_“Of course I will!” He said, ignoring his friends’ snickers from behind him._

_She smiled and it was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen._

He stared, numb, at her unmoving form.

_“Back off, Groose! She said no!”_

_“What’s it have to do with you anyway?!”_

_“Zelda’s my friend and my date for the dance. So I’d say it has a lot to do with me.”_

_“You’re taking this dope to the dance?” He demanded, turning to Zelda._

_“Yes.” She said primly._

_He scowled and stalked away without another word._

_Zelda beamed at him. “Thanks, Link.” She said as she grabbed his arm and pulled him from the Dining Hall. “He just wouldn’t leave me alone.”_

_“It was no problem.” He said. “Hopefully, he’ll stay away from now._

_“I doubt it.” She replied, scowling. “Riju was saying he continued following Urbosa around even after she turned him down. Urbosa is her sister. He only backed off when her boyfriend, Revali, went and brought him down a few pegs.”_

_“He’ll stay away if he knows what’s good for him.” Link said firmly. “No one hurts my Zelda.”_

He lowered his hands from his eyes, tears now trickling down his face.

_“I just… I need some space, Link!”_

He noted, as he stared at the backs of his hands, the slight tremors from his dizziness; the bruises from when he’d punched the wall; the ink stains from the pen he’d broken earlier.

_“Link! We’re arguing about everything. There was that time you thought I was cheating on you. The time you thought I bought too much paint. We even argued about salt yesterday, Link. Salt!”_

He turned his hands over and they were covered in blood. _Her_ blood.

_“I could never be a doctor.” She said as they watched Dr Merris bandage her arm. “I’d probably throw up twice a day from dealing with all that blood.”_

In a fit of rage, he threw the blood-covered knife he held across the room where it hit the door. The fragile, years-old wood splintered and large parts of it fell off.

His bloodshot eyes moved up to the clock and he dimly registered that it wouldn’t be much longer until he was found. Malon, their neighbour, always left for her Uncle’s ranch on Saturday nights and she’d likely be leaving soon. She’d no doubt see the scene through the holes in the broken door and call the police. He’d be arrested for killing her.

_…for killing her…_

_I killed her_

He sank back to his knees in front of her body. She looked so _cold_. Which Demons in the guise of the Goddesses did Hyrule worship if they allowed monsters like him to live, while the pure and innocent died? What kind of Goddess would end such a beautiful existence?

_“Do you believe in the old myths? You know, the ones about the Hero and a Princess fighting the Darkness?”_

_“I don’t really know what to think. I was told that… that Mum and Dad believed in it.” Her voice held a note of bitterness he’d never heard from her before. “That they used to worship the Goddesses, but, well, the Goddesses didn’t help them when they were killed, did they?”_

“I’m sorry, Zelda.” He whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

He forced his eyes away from her body and they landed on a small, ornate hand mirror lying on the dresser. He walked over and picked it up.

_“It’s all I have left of Mum.”_

_On the back of the mirror, a poem had been inscribed in Ancient Hylian. From what little Link knew of the old language from Sheik, he was able to understand enough of the poem that he knew what it spoke of. It spoke of love and of family. Of wisdom and of courage. Of the need to temper power with balance and of the responsibilities that came with it. All of that was told in a poem only a few lines long and of which he had been able to decipher only a couple._

Somehow, seeing the poem again hurt more than anything else he’d seen that day.

He turned the mirror and gazed into the glass. His reflection mocked him with its cold indifference and careful control. It seemed _wrong_ to Link.

_“And what about the monsters? If the myths are true, wouldn’t there also be monsters hiding among us?”_

_She shuddered. “I hope not.”_

The reflection twisted and became monstrous, sneering at him with contempt clear in the cruel red eyes. The eyes were surrounded by a darkness deeper than night, and he didn’t know what was more _unnatural_ between the two. “You _liked_ it, didn’t you?” It whispered. “You enjoyed it, seeing her beg for mercy. Seeing her blood mar her skin and stain your hand.”

“Who are you.” He whispered. “What are you.”  
The reflection sneered again. “I am you. I am what you have become.”

“NO!” He roared. He threw the mirror to the ground and watched as the reflection shattered before falling, sobbing once more.

_“Why’d they have to die, Link?” She sobbed. “Why’d they leave me?”_

_“They loved you, Zelda. They would never have left you willingly.”_

_“But you can’t know! None of us can know because we never had the chance to know them! For all we know, they were monsters.”_

A scream echoed behind him and he didn’t have to turn to know it was Malon. He turned anyway and watched as she scrambled backwards, her hand fumbling for her pocket and the phone within and slamming her door shut when he stood and walked towards the splintered door to his own house to pick up the knife. With the weapon in hand, he returned to kneeling by Zelda’s body.

There was so much blood.

_“You’re hurt!”_

_"It’s just a scratch, Zelda. I’ll be fine in a bit.”_

_“You’re bleeding, Link!”_

_“I’ll be fine, Zel. Stop fussing.”_

She had looked at him with tears in her eyes when he held the knife to her throat. Pleaded with him when he pressed hard enough to draw blood. Even continued to plead with her eyes once she could no longer speak from the blood filling her lungs.

He’d made her cry. He’d _hurt_ her.

_No one hurts my Zelda._

His eyes never left her cold, unseeing ones as he raised the knife to his own throat. His whispered apologies continued as he drew blood and even continued as his blood filled his throat.

_Who am I? What have I become?_

**Author's Note:**

> I’m so sorry to any Zelink shippers, I’m sorry to Link and Zelda and I’m sorry for myself. This hurt to write. I honestly didn’t mean to do this, but I just had the idea one night and it all just… happened.
> 
> To be honest, I’m kind of angry with myself… I wrote this after rereading a fic called Us by prien12 on FFN. I’d read it months ago and I remember wishing there were more fics like it, so I wrote one myself. The first half-hour finished with one paragraph written and I was about ready to give up. Thankfully, it went much better yesterday and I was able to finish it in a couple of hours. I’ve spent more time editing than writing though and even after the word count’s gone up by about 250 words, I’m nowhere near happy enough with it to publish it.
> 
> Anyway. I’ve been watching chuggaaconroy’s LP of Xenoblade Chronicles and I’ve only reached the (SPOILER) Imperial Capital, Alcamoth, in Episode 33— but God, if Melia and Shulk don’t get together, I will scream in every language I know! I don’t actually know how to scream in French yet, but I’m still learning, after all. I mean, I remember something about Fiora being alive though, which is kind of sad. As much as I was shipping them back before the Mechon attack, Fiora coming back would probably spoil all chance of… Shulia? Melk? Hopefully not the second one. Dunban’s pretty cool too and Reyn is hilarious! And the music is pretty good too!
> 
> Thanks for reading this! Please leave a comment and I hope you like it enough that you can leave kudos or bookmark this as a rec! I’m off to try to fix my Harry Potter fics now…


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